Gross Relations @ Bruar Falls, April 23rd, 2010

Bruar Falls was packed for the debut of Gross Relations. They were pretty good, sort of like an even more lo-fi version of Guided By Voices, if that's possible, except with a vibrato-y keyboard and distorted vocals. And I'm not just saying all this cuz they recorded their EP at my studio, I would never do that!

Doomstar! @ Party Expo, April 1, 2010

Holy shit. Doomstar! fucking destroyed! They just keep getting better, with such a huge sound for 3-piece. Sorry, no pictures. I was too busy jumping around!

SHITSTORM w/ The Walk-It-Offs, Martha Dumptruck Massacre @ Matchless, March 31st, 2010

Due to scheduling conflicts (Drum had to skip practice to break up with his girlfriend) SHITSTORM had to play this shit-show as a two piece. I think it went well? At least all the blips and beeps were in their proper order, and everyone had their mind blown. Noise collage at it's best. Thank you for your support! No pics from the show, but we bought some nerd glasses and took a couple portraits during practice. I think Carl looks fantastic.


Martha Dumptruck Massacre always brings a big smile to my ears. For some reason, I can't really describe them, but at least one song really put everything in perspective, and made my night. They're also cool dudes.

Yellow Tears @ Whitney Museum, Friday March 26th, 2009

Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Couch For a Long Time, 2009.
Photograph by Dan Kvitka.

Okay, so I arrived a little late and missed most of Thurston Moore's noise set for this Whitney Biennial event (but I saw him at Glasslands a while back and it was fantastic, so I don't feel too bad). Anyway, Thurston was gonna headline, but didn't want to follow Yellow Tears, and with good reason, they have a monstrous sound and deserved the top spot.

Yellow Tears are what I would describe as "weirdo noise." Their sound-scape collage is consistently unexpected and indescribable, thus perfect for an Art Museum show. They used one sample of a woman screaming in pain, as if she were being stabbed or murdered, that really blew everyone's mind (or at least mine). I couldn't see very well, but I did see the band doing these contorted facial expressions and rapid tongue movements to the music, that in any other context would seem really off-putting, but somehow worked with the strange music. Check out their album The Piss Mop to see what I mean...

Choir Of Young Believers @ Pianos, March 11, 2010

Beautiful, just beautiful! If the stupid bouncer hadn't detained me at the door for 15 minutes for no reason, I would've seen the whole Choir Of Young Believers set (I guess I was in a line full of scheezy dudes -- but I was going to the show! not to hit on girls at the bar!). As it was, I walked in right during a lush version of "Next Summer" and I knew I was in the right place. They came all the way from Denmark for what I assume is their first US visit. Wow. They were amazing. Jannis Makrigiannis has one of the most beautiful voices out there, just as shimmery as Band of Horses or Fleet Foxes, but COYB tunes are slower and more exposed (instead of hiding under a wall of sound, you can hear every note). Their drummer was real good. Shit, they all were. I was worried their live show would be too EMO or too slow or depressing. Not even close, they're were pros and even rocked out a bit at times. They played a few new songs that were also choice. This band will be huge in like a year or two. They probably already are in Europe. See 'em in a small venue, if ya can...

The Morning Benders @ Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, February 25th, 2009

It's hard to resist The Morning Benders for a regular show, but an all-acoustic bookstore gig? With proceeds going to fight hiv/aids? Near impossible! ("You say the money for this beer goes to fight aids? Yes, I'll have another, and I'm buying one for Carl!"). There was also a cool CD swap thing at this show. I traded my Veckatimest record for a Miles Davis CD, which I didn't end up liking. Oh well, still a cool concept...

So, TMB have a new album out, Big Echo, but it wasn't out yet for this show, so most of us didn't know all the new songs they played. No matter, we all sang along with the new single, "Excuses" for the closer, which was pretty cool. It was lead-singer Christopher Chu's birthday, so I'm sure it was a special night for the band too. And it looks like TMB are moving to nyc too, so now we can go hang out at The Levee together and be friends. Sweet! BTW, the whole line up for this show was good Check out Shark? and Cuddle Magic. Both solid.

Here We Go Magic @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, January 29th, 2009

What's nice about having a blog in which you don't really care about whether it 'blows up' is that you can take your sweet ol' time in posting. I saw Here We Go Magic a couple of weeks ago. They've got one of the best albums out this year and I've been waiting a while for them to get their act together and play a show (they play surpisingly infrequently for a 'local' band).

I thought it would be hard to translate the album to the live stage since i read somewhere that Luke Temple wrote and recorded the album all by his lonesome in his Greenpoint apartment (no small feat). But, lo and behold, everyone knew their parts and they were bad-ass! Probably the most relaxed band I've ever seen on stage. It felt like we were just hanging out in their practice space! Either they're amazing actors or just really chill dudes! Or maybe headlining one of the biggest venues in Brooklyn isn't such a big deal? It isn't! What i liked, is that they really explored their songs instead of just going thru the motions. As if they actually enjoyed playing their music! As if! But yeah, Here We Go was flippin' rad (notice the napolean dynamite reference to the word 'flippin' - yeah, sweet). Even worth the $12+ cover charge. That says a lot! I mean you've got to be good to back up an incredible video like this one... Fangela!